President Donald Trump has bragged that he is the only person capable of pulling off the ongoing attack on Iran, according to a reporter who spoke with him.
On Saturday, the president launched so-called Operation Epic Fury. Joint strikes with Israel across Iran killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and, at the time of writing, have killed at least 555 people.
Trump spoke to ABC reporter Jonathan Karl on Sunday night, who claimed the president told him he had become increasingly bullish. That, he said, was due to the success of his strikes in Venezuela, which saw U.S. forces abduct dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, without a single U.S. loss.
“He sounded to me like a president who feels invincible,” Karl said on Good Morning America early Monday. “He talked about the military strike he ordered last summer against the nuclear program in Iran. He talked about the operation to take out Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela and what he sees as a wildly successful attack now underway against Iran.
“He told me, quote, ‘Nobody could have done this but me and you know that.’”
Talks between the U.S. and Iran had been ongoing for most of February but ultimately failed. Karl added that Trump “suggested that the success in Venezuela made him less likely to accept concessions in Iran that were offered in the final round of talks. He told me that a year ago he would have accepted what the Iranians offered, but quote, ‘We have become spoiled.’”
Trump was beaten to the announcement of Khamenei’s death, with Israeli officials confirming the news to Reuters first.
Karl said Trump had previously told him that the strikes had also wiped out most of the senior Iranian officials that the White House had identified as possible successors, but that one had survived.
“He wouldn’t say who it was, one surviving member,” Karl said. “He suggested that before the strikes, he had identified possible candidates within the Iranian government who could take over the way Delci Rodriguez did after Maduro was taken out in Venezuela.
“But he said the attack was so successful. It knocked out most of the candidates. It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead. As for how long this is gonna go on, he said… he was planning for four or five weeks, could be longer, could be shorter.”
Following the killing of Khamenei, Trump said on Truth Social that he was “one of the most evil people in history.”
Karl previously reported that Trump had said, “I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well I got him first,” adding U.S. intelligence thinks there may have been a plot to kill Trump in 2024.
Iran has launched counterpunches of its own, firing rockets and drones at nations throughout the Middle East that house U.S. military bases or are close allies of Washington, D.C., including the UAE, Bahrain, Israel, and Qatar.
Four U.S. servicemembers are already known to have been killed in the conflict that has ensued.
Smoke was also seen rising near the U.S. embassy in Kuwait, although no casualties have been reported.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
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